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T. w. BURGER.

Register Pepper- Box.

'Patented Feb. 16, 1815.4

3? Q WW Mt THE GRAPHIC COJHOTOPLITHJQBH PARK PLAGEJLY THEODORE W. BURGER, OF PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN REGISTER PEPPER-BOXES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 159,895, dated February 16, 1875; application filed December 4, 1874.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, THEODORE W. BUR GER, of Plainfield, in the county of Union and State ofNew Jersey, have invented an Improvement in Register Pepper-Boxes, of which the following is a specification:

Thisinvention relates tothat class of pepperboxes in which the perforated top is provided with a cover having a sliding movement, to cover or uncover the perforations in the said top, as occasion may require.

The object of this invention is to provide a box of the class specified in which the mova ble plate shall be capable of much more convenient manipulation, and shall close the perforations much more tightly and uniformly, than has been found practicable with the register-boxes hitherto in use. To this end the invention consists in the combination of a centrally-pivoted movable plate, constructed with radial spring-strips having interspaces between them, with the perforated top of the pepper-box.

Figure 1 is a central vertical sectional view of a register pepper-box made according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same, showing the movable plate in position to close the perforations in the top of the box; and Fig. 3 is a similar view, showing the plate in position to open the aforesaid perforations as required in the use. or operation of the box.

A is the body of the box, made of sheet tin or other suitable material, and ofthe usual cylindrical form. In its top or upper end is provided an annular series of perforations, a, which should be nearly or quite concentric with the rivet or pivot c, this latter being preferably coincident with the center or longitudinal axis of the body A. B is the movable plate, more or less crown-shaped, as more fully indicated in Fig. 1, its flat, depressed,

central portion f being pivoted or swiveled to the top of the box by the rivet c. This plate B has its circumference deeply indented by angular notches a, so that the plate itself is provided with radial strips g, which, from the crowned or curved form of their inner portions, are capable of an elastic or spring-like action. The radial strips 9 correspond in number with the perforations a, and have their flat outer end portions 0 coincident therewith; consequently the plate B may be turned to bring the ends of the strips g over and upon the perforations a, thereby closing them against the outlet of the contents of the box when the latter is inverted or shaken,and by turning the plate to bring the strips 9 between the perforations a, the latter will be uncovered to permit the contents of the box to be shaken out in the ordinary manner.

Now, I am aware that a register-plate has been applied hitherto to the perforated top of a pepper-box for the purpose of closing and opening the perforations as occasion may render desirable, and such, broadly, therefore, I do not claim; but it will be noticed that in my invention the angular notches a, provide interspaces to the radial strips g, and that the upwardly-curved or crowned form of the inner portions of the latter provide raised edges. These raised edges may be taken hold of by the bulbs of the finger and thumb tips with a firm but easy and convenient grasp upon the plate B, without that use of the thumb-nail which has been required by other registerboxes, and consequently the risk of breaking the nail, and the pain frequently experienced in the thumb from the pressure of the nail against the depressed edge of a register-plate, is wholly avoided; and, furthermore, the strips being capable of a spring-like action, independent of each other, upon the top of the box, each strip presses snugly upon the contiguous perforation of the top, (when such perforations are closed, as hereinbefore set forth,) and each of the perforations is snugly closed with a spring-pressure upon it, irrespective of any irregularity in the flat contour of the top of the box.

What I claim as my invention is The centrally-pivoted crown shaped movable plate B, constructed with the radial strips g, having recesses or notches a between, in combination with the top of a pepper-box formed with the annular series of perforations a, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

THEODORE W. BURGER.

Attest:

JAMES A. WHITNEY, ADOLPHUS NIcoLLE'r. 

